1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to packaging and to a method of using the packaging to protect sensitive surfaces of articles during shipping and handling. The packaging is useful when at least one surface of the article should not be contacted during shipping, and may be useful during handling of the article prior to placement of the article in the location of its intended use.
2. Brief Description of the Background Art
Various packaging has been developed to protect an article during shipment. Blister, bubble, and heat-shrinkable packaging which holds the article in position during shipment and protects the article from an exterior environment has been particularly popular. Examples of such packaging are described in trade journal publications and patents. For purposes of illustration a number of examples follow. U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,991, issued Mar. 31, 1992 to Kitagawa et al., describes electrolytic capacitors having terminals on one base face and a fixing frame at the other end, which are inserted in bags made of air-bubble plastic sheet of tubular shape. One end of the air-bubble bag is welded to form an end and a terminal protection part. The bags containing the electrolytic capacitor are compactly packed in a box of corrugated cardboard in alternating direction. Delicate terminals of the capacitors are safely and compactly packed within the air-bubble bag inside the box and the bent part of the fixing frames of the capacitor are safely isolated by the bag. (Abstract) FIG. 1b shows the bubbles on the interior of the bag contacting the surface of the capacitor protected by the bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,149, issued May 31, 1994 to Tate, discloses a reusable bag for packaging articles. The reusable bag is a perforated plastic bag filled with blown polystyrene beads of high compressive strength. A number of these bags are used within a box, surrounding a relatively heavy, but fragile article. When the lid of the box is closed, the closing action puts pressure onto the filled bags so that air contained in each bag is evacuated via the perforations in the bag. This forces the blown beads together to form a rigid structure molded generally to the shape of the article. When the box is opened and air returns to the bags, they once again become loose and flexible and can be reused. Again, the exterior surface of the bags is in contact with the article protected by the bags during shipment. More recently, non-perforated bags filled with air have been used to fill spaces around an article in shipping containers. The air bags maintain a constant pressure on the surface of the article in the shipping container, holding the article in position during shipping.
Japanese Patent No. 11189219 A, issued Jul. 13, 1999, describes packaging for shock absorption while transporting earthenware, glassware and precision machinery. The packaging includes an inner bag and an outer bag. After placing the article to be packed inside the inner bag and filling the space between the bags with a gas, the top and bottom of the inner and outer bags are each tightened with a clip so that the internal pressure between the bags increases to a specified value.
European Patent Application Number 00610071.3, published on Jan. 9, 2001 under publication number EP 1170225 A1, describes an “inflatable bag for packaging and protection and its method of producing”. (Title) The basic description of the invention pertains to an inflatable bag produced from a single web of a foil material, where the web is folded into a four-ply assembly providing three chambers including an inner chamber sandwiched between two outer chambers communicating with one another through a passage delimited by the fold connecting the walls of the inner chamber together. The foil material may be a combination of a plastic material and aluminum foil. The second, inner chamber containing the object or product to be protected may constitute a single chamber having a configuration which is preferably the configuration or shape of the product. For maintaining the object or product in a specific orientation and position within the inner chamber of the bag, the second chamber is preferably further delimited by joints interconnecting the second and third foil layers, by way of example.
U.S. patent publication No. US2002/0064319 A1 of Tanaka et al., published May 30, 2002, describes a buffer packing bag which includes an air-supply passage which is made of plastic films placed one on another and bonded at desirable spots, with an air-inflatable section formed beside the air-supplying passage. The air-inflatable section is divided into individual air-inflatable parts, formed by heat bonding at multiple spots. Check valves allow and stop air flow between each of individual air-inflatable parts and the air-supplying passage. Space making folds, made in the divided portions of the air-inflatable section make at least two lines with a proper interval crossing each of the individual air-inflatable parts in order to contain an article in the buffer packing bag. A loading slit for the article is formed on the flat base of the bag by folding inward from both sides along the length side of the base and heat bonding both of the overlapped length sides of the base except for the area of an air inlet for the air-supplying passage. After an article has been loaded into the bag, air is pressured through the air inlet to the air-supplying package to send air to the individual air-inflatable parts of the buffer packing bag. The buffer packaging bag is better understood by looking at the illustrations. FIG. 3 shows an assembled bag with an article enclosed within the bag. The interior of the buffer bag is in contact with the article which is protected by the buffer bag.
A modified atmosphere package for high profile products from upwardly formed heat shrinkable film is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,598 B1, issued Jun. 25, 2002. A packaging process is disclosed in which a high profile product is placed in a tray (extending above the tray). An upper film, including a sealant layer which is sealable to the tray, is positioned above the tray at a particular orientation. The entire assembly is present within a processing vessel which permits removing gases from the cavity between the film, the product, and the tray, while maintaining the film at its location above the tray. A desirable gas is introduced into the cavity and then the upper film, which has been heated, is allowed to shrink toward the product and the tray. The film shrinks down to hold the product against the tray, leaving space filled with the desirable gas between the lowermost portions of the product and the tray. The edges of the film are sealed to the edges of the tray. The modified atmosphere package is designed for packaging of a number of items which are sensitive to the environment, such as food items, for example, and particularly for meat.
As is apparent from reading the above descriptions, a package design is generally based on the end-use application for the package. Each application for a package has particular requirements if the product is to be protected and preserved by the package in which it is stored and transported. In the present instance, we are concerned about storage and transportation of articles which have a surface which is contact sensitive. In particular, the surface to be protected may be friable (easily broken or crumbled), may be chemically sensitive to contact by handling, or may be sensitive to exposure to a particular environment. In particular, we have developed packaging for semiconductor processing apparatus where at least one surface, and typically a plurality of surfaces are subject to damage by contact during storage prior to shipment, during transportation, and during storage prior to installation into the semiconductor processing environment.
It would be advantageous to have a package which restricts the motion of a surface-sensitive article within the package, which avoids contact of packaging materials with the surface-sensitive areas of the article during storage and shipment of the article, and which permits removal of the article from the package with minimal risk that the packaging will contact the surface-sensitive areas of the article during removal of the article from the package.